THE SCREEN; Through French Eyes.

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.

About the Archive

This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.

Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems. Please send reports of such problems to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

Abel Gance's picture. "Napoleon," now at the Fifty-fifth Street Playhouse, is far from satisfying in the abbreviated form in which it is issued here. It has, however, the redeeming virtue of permitting one to gaze upon the Little Corporal through French eyes. It is also interesting to observe the French conception of other men of that day, including Danton, Rouget de Lisle, Robespierre, Marat, the Empress Josephine, together with brief flashes of Nelson, Admiral Hood and others.The action of this film is often theatric and its ending, as it is now, is far too abrupt. Nevertheless, it is much more informative in its way than the average historical subject. Considering its length, too much time is devoted to Napoleon's early days; for first he is seen as a youth and then as the rebellious Corsican, who flees from his own countrymen in an open boat, using the tricolor of France as a sail. It is emphasized during the episode that Nelson suggested the sinking of the sailing ship, which had picked up Napoleon, but the captain of the British man-o'-war didn't want to waste the powder.A good deal of footage is given over to the defeat of General O'Hara and the driving him out of Toulon. These battle scenes are not particularly impressive, but they do engender suspense because of the antagonism of other French officers to Napoleon's tactics, especially his idea of atacking during a drenching rainstorm. It is stressed in a quoted title that Napoleon said that the other French officers made a mistake in looking upon a retreat as a defeat. It is not long before he turns to the General, promising him that he will dine that night in Toulon, which port the British had been using as an artillery base to protect their fleet.An incident that is capitally pictured is one showing Admiral Hood in the mess room aboard his flagship. He is leaning against a table and is handed a cup of coffee as he is told of General O'Hara's defeat. He puts the sugar into his cup, never changing his comfortable position, declares that the fleet will have to move now that they are no longer protected by land guns.The episodes, with such men as Danton and Robespierre, are not without merit, and likewise some of the scenes portraying Josephine; but there is in this edition of the picture an effort to cover too many historical incidents and the consequence is that quite a number of the passages are confused.Albert Dieudonne plays Napoleon. He is not the popular conception of France's leader. He is tall and slender and, while he, or Mr. Gance, make the most of a sympathetic pair of eyes, it is dubious whether these features are at all like Napoleon's. Certainly Napoleon did not strut and pose as does M. Dieudonne. This actor, however, does not always make it a point of sticking his band in his coat as most portrayers of Napoleon do. M. Dieudonne has an agreeable personality, but he never impresses one as being the prototype of the virile Corsican. When he is seen in the rain outside Toulon, it is only too evident that his face is covered with grease-paint. When he escapes from the Corsicans, he appears to have things very much his own way and also seems to be almost as agile as Douglas Fairbanks.Gina Manes plays Josephine. She is an actress with a certain charm, but her make-up is more for the theatre than for the prying eye of the camera.

Through French Eyes.NAPOLEON, with Albert Dieudonne, Vladimir Roudenko, Alexandre Koubitzky, Harry Krijnen. Edmond van Daele, Gina Manes and others, directed by Abel Gance; New York from the Skles; "Saturday Afternoon," a comedy; "Nuernberg," a scenic film. At the Fifty-fifth Street Playhouse.There is at present at the Cameo a Soviet film which is attracting some attention in Europe under the title of "White Eagle." It is known over here as "The Lash of the Czar," and is another Bolshevik preachment that tells of the mental sufferings of a provincial Governor after ordering the troops to fire on a mob.It has its noteworthy moments and one sequence that is in extremely bad taste. It is decidedly not the type of picture to take children to see. It was produced by I. A. Protazanof, who is rather fond of ridiculing the Governor and likewise the Czar's emissary. He has, however, elicited intelligent performances from most of his players.M. Protazanof, like other Soviet directors, revels in contrasting phases of life. He shows the Governor's sick child in a comfortable bed receiving every attention and then turns to the poor sorrowing mother of a dead child. There is the attractive banquet table in the Governor's palace, which is followed by a glimpse of the hunger-striking workmen in jail.V. I. Katchalof figures as the Governor. He is a fine figure of a man and succeeds admirably in portraying the Governor's grief following the shooting scene. He is eager to make amends, but he is nevertheless not a little proud of receiving from the Czar's commissioner the decoration of the White Eagle.The Czar's tottering and baldheaded emissary is especially well played by M. Meyerkhold. This man's nervousness and also that of the Governor is humorous to behold when at a church ceremony an old workman is suspected of carrying an infernal machine. The old man's tin can turns out to be perfectly harmless, but the idea, of it being a bomb caused the commissioner and the Governor to make themselves scarce. One can readily imagine this pompous, meticulous old Czarist's feelings during these proceedings and also his great relief when it turns out that there is no cause for fear.The growling workers are beheld holding a meeting in a boat in the middle of a river. They want a solution of the harsh rule. They don't believe that it will do any good to kill the Governor, but it happens that the police spy, angered because the Governor declines to look at a petition, himself whips out a revolver and fires several times, leaving the Governor dying as the palace guests are dancing in another room. Incidentally, the spy's first bullet strikes the face of a bust of the Czar and the smashed bust is shown with the Governor trembling with fright as he faces the pistol.Anna Sten figures as a nurse in the Governor's household. This nurse's sympathy or affection for the Governor ends after the troops are ordered to fire on the crowd, and in one scene she is about to shoot the Governor, but finally drops her pearl-handled pistol. Miss Sten is good-looking, but her make-up is poor.The interior scenes of this production look as if they had been taken in one of the Russian palaces. The exteriors are not quite so effective, chiefly because the town always appears to be sparsely populated.Audible Slapstick.On the same program at the Colony with that impressive jungle production "Simba" there is Mack Sennett's first dialogue slapstick comedy. It is called "The Lion's Roar" and it is really quite funny. The situations are well worked out and the voices are fairly well registered.While this comedy was holding forth yesterday afternoon one of the characters was heard to ejaculate that he hated guns. No sooner was this said than there was an explosion, caused by blasting at Fifty-third Street and Broadway, and the audience was immediately stirred to a lusty outburst of laughter.It is invariably funny when a man is suddenly surprised by a lion. It is enough to make a hardened cynic grin when in this film the two men with one gun who are out looking for rabbits are suddenly confronted by a lion, whose roar comes with marvelous realism from the screen.Mr. Sennett has arranged matters in this adventure so that for the first time a pie as it strikes a man's face is heard as well as seen. There are a number of ingenious twists to this comedy, which was hugely appreciated by the spectators, who also were thrilled by Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson's exploits with wild beasts and savages in the African jungle.